Indexed in: Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed/MEDLINE, ProQuest, EBSCOhost, Google Scholar
Print ISSN: 1555-0265
Online ISSN: 1555-0273
2023 Impact Factor: 3.5
2023 CiteScore: 5.8
The International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (IJSPP) focuses on sport physiology and performance and is dedicated to advancing the knowledge of sport and exercise physiologists, sport-performance researchers, and other sport scientists. The journal publishes authoritative peer-reviewed research in sport physiology and related disciplines, with an emphasis on work having direct practical applications in enhancing sport performance. IJSPP publishes monthly.
The International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (IJSPP) is an international peer-reviewed journal that examines practical and research aspects of sport physiology and sport performance. The editorial mission of IJSPP is to advance the knowledge of sport and exercise physiologists, sport scientists, sport physicians, and sport-performance researchers. The journal promotes the publication of research in sport physiology and related disciplines that has direct practical application to enhancing sport performance, preventing decrements in performance, or enhancing recovery of athletes. The journal publishes original research reports, invited reviews, commentaries, brief reports, and an editorial section. The intended breadth of IJSPP includes team sports, individual sports, performance aspects of environmental physiology, applied sport nutrition, strength and conditioning, biomedical science, and applications of sport technology. Controlled experimental and observational research of a comprehensive or systematic nature is welcome, provided that appropriate standards of scientific methodology and analysis are met. Studies using animal models do not fit within our mission statement and should be submitted elsewhere. The journal will be of interest to sport scientists, sport physicians, coaches, academic researchers, students, and related professionals.
Øyvind Sandbakk, PhD
UiT the Arctic University of Norway, Norway
Email: oyvind.sandbakk@ntnu.no
Øyvind became Editor of IJSPP in 2022, after previously serving as an Associate Editor for the journal. He is a professor with the Department of Neuromedicine and Movement Science at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology, as well as Director of the Centre for Elite Sports Research. He has a background both as a coach and as a sport scientist and was previously head of Research and Development at the Norwegian Top Sport Centre (Olympiatoppen). His close cooperation with sport coaches and the world’s best-performing athletes and his practically oriented research approach have facilitated the implementation of scientific findings in the services and training practices of Norwegian top sport, through his membership in expert groups for the Norwegian government and executive board positions. Øyvind earned his PhD in human movement science from the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in 2011. |
David Pyne, University of Canberra, Australia (founding editor, 2006–2009)
Carl Foster, University of Wisconsin–La Crosse, USA (2010–2013)
Ralph Beneke, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany (2014–2017)
Jos de Koning,Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands (2018–2021)
Dionne Noordhof, PhD
Norwegian University of Science and Technology, Norway
Email: dionne.a.noordhof@ntnu.no
Iñigo Mujika, PhD
University of the Basque Country (UPV-EHU), Spain
Email: inigo.mujika@inigomujika.com
Karim Chamari, PhD
Manouba University, Tunisia
Email: karim.chamari66@gmail.com
Bart Roelands, PhD, FECSS
Vrije Universiteit Brussel, Belgium
Email: Bart.Roelands@vub.be
Sabrina Skorski, PhD
Saarland University, Germany
Email: s.skorski@mx.uni-saarland.de
Thomas Haugen, PhD
Kristiania University College, Norway
Email: thomas.haugen@kristiania.no
Daniel Boullosa, PhD
Universidad de León, Spain
Email: daniel.boullosa@gmail.com
Robert P. Lamberts, PhD, FECSS
Stellenbosch University, South Africa
Email: rplamberts@gmail.com
Xanne A.K. Janse de Jonge, PhD
Griffith University, Australia
Email: x.jansedejonge@griffith.edu.au
Cristina Cortis, PhD
University of Cassino and Lazio Meriodionale, Italy
Email: c.cortis@unicas.it
Irineu Loturco, PhD
Nucleus of High Performance in Sport, Brazil
Email: irineu.loturco@terra.com.br
Kerry McGawley, PhD
Mid Sweden University, Sweden
Email: kerry.mcgawley@miun.se
Christopher Stevens, PhD
Southern Cross University, Australia
Email: Christopher.Stevens@scu.edu.au
Daniel Bok, University of Zagreb, Croatia
Pitre Bourdon, University of South Australia, Australia
Mark Burnley, University of Kent, UK
Daniele Conte, University of Rome “Foro Italico,” Italy
Oliver Faude, University of Basel, Switzerland
Florentina Hettinga, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherlands
Martin Hoffman, University of California, Davis, USA
Will Hopkins, Victoria University, Australia
Olivier Hue, University of West Indies and Guyana, Guadeloupe
Andrew Jones, University of Exeter, UK
Liam Kilduff, Swansea University, UK
Don Kirkendall, Duke University Medical Center, USA
Renate M. Leithäuser, Philipps-University Marburg, Germany
Thomas Losnegard, Norwegian School of Sport Sciences, Oslo, Norway
Grégoire P. Millet, University of Lausanne, Switzerland
Fábio Y. Nakamura, University of Maia, Portugal
Maria F. Piacentini, University of Rome “Foro Italico,” Italy
José Rodríguez-Marroyo, University of Leon, Spain
Stephen Seiler, University of Agder, Norway
Trent Stellingwerff, Canadian Sport Institute Pacific, Canada
Montassar Tabben, Aspetar Orthopedic and Sports Medicine Hospital, Qatar
Randy Wilber, United States Olympic Committee, USA
Social Media Editor
Teun van Erp, INEOS Grenadiers, the Netherlands
Human Kinetics Staff
Julia Glahn, Senior Journals Managing Editor
Prior to submission, please carefully read and follow the submission guidelines detailed below. Authors must submit their manuscripts through the journal’s ScholarOne online submission system. To submit, click the button below:
The Journals Division at Human Kinetics adheres to the criteria for authorship as outlined by the International Committee of Medical Journal Editors*:
Each author should have participated sufficiently in the work to take public responsibility for the content. Authorship credit should be based only on substantial contributions to:
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Conditions a, b, c, and d must all be met. Individuals who do not meet the above criteria may be listed in the acknowledgments section of the manuscript. *http://www.icmje.org/recommendations/browse/roles-and-responsibilities/defining-the-role-of-authors-and-contributors.html
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As of June 2020, the International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance (IJSPP) requires a nonrefundable submission fee of US $40 for Original Investigation and Brief Report articles. The fee is collected through the journal's ScholarOne site.
Authors may apply by email to the Editor to have the submission fee for IJSPP waived if they can provide documentation showing that they are affiliated with a country classified as low to lower-middle income (LMIC) by the World Bank and can also demonstrate that their institution is unable to cover the cost of the fee.
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All manuscripts must be written in English, typed single-spaced in Times New Roman size 12 font with wide margins, and include an abstract of no more than 250 words. Please activate continuous line numbering. Clearly label any figures and submit them as separate files (Word documents, PDFs, Excel files, JPGs, TIFFs, etc). Number all pages in this order: title page (page 1), abstract, text, acknowledgments (if any), references, figure captions, tables. Authors who speak English as an additional language should seek the assistance of a colleague experienced in writing for English-language scientific journals. Carefully proofread the final revision and keep a copy of the manuscript. Do not submit the manuscript to another journal at the same time.
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Manuscripts should be written in first person using the active voice. Writing should be concise and direct. Avoid using unnecessary jargon and abbreviations, but use an acronym or abbreviation if it is more commonly recognized than the spelled-out version of a term. Formats of numbers and units and all other style matters should follow the AMA Manual of Style, 10th edition. Measurements of length, height, mass, and volume should be reported in metric units (m, kg). Only standard physiological abbreviations should be used because nonstandard abbreviations are unnecessary and confusing. Avoid abbreviations in the title. The full wording should precede the first use of an abbreviation.
Manuscripts that do not fall within the scope and mission statement of the journal or fail to comply with the submission guidelines will not enter the formal review process. The corresponding author is required to nominate 3 potential reviewers for the manuscript with suitable expertise in the area addressed by the manuscript. The journal is under no obligation to use any of the nominated reviewers. The corresponding author can also identify up to 3 potential reviewers who might have a potential conflict of interest with the content of the submitted manuscript and/or with one or more of the manuscript co-authors. Manuscripts will be read by the editor, associate editor, and 2 reviewers through a single-anonymous review process in which the reviewer’s identity is concealed from the submitting authors. In contrast, peer reviewers will have access to all the metadata associated with a submitted manuscript, including the authors’ names and affiliations. This process will take 4 to 8 weeks.
Authors must identify potential conflicts of interest in the areas of financial, institutional, and/or personal relationships that might inappropriately influence their actions or statements. Financial relationships that could form a potential conflict of interest include employment, consultancy, honoraria, and other payments. Personal conflict of interest can relate to personal relationships, academic or sporting competition, and intellectual passion. Authors must disclose potential conflicts of interest to the subjects in the study being reported and state this explicitly in the Methods section of the manuscript. Disclosure of conflict of interest applies to all submissions to IJSPP, including original articles, reviews, invited commentaries, and other features.
Authors must state explicitly whether potential conflicts of interest exist. In instances where the study has been funded by a third party with a proprietary or financial interest in the outcomes, the corresponding author should include the following statement in the cover letter accompanying submission: “I had full access to all of the data in this study and take full responsibility for their integrity and analysis.” The following statement should be included with the published manuscript in the Acknowledgments section: “The results of the current study do not constitute endorsement of the product by the authors or the journal.” The name of any funding agency or company, manufacturer, or third-party institution or organization that provided funding, equipment, or technical support should be stated.
IJSPP features the following article types:
Traditional investigative articles encompassing experimental or observational research, limited to 3500 words (not inclusive of abstract, acknowledgments, references, tables, and figure captions) and ~30 references. Only studies involving human subjects will be published. As the mission of IJSPP is to advance the knowledge of sport and exercise physiologists, sport scientists, sport physicians, and sport-performance researchers, authors need to clearly identify the athletic level and background of subjects and make some statement on the transferability of the outcomes to other athletic cohorts and/or other sports. Authors should clearly detail the physiological measures (or surrogates) used in the study, their importance, and implementation or translation to performance in the field.
A shorter article encompassing experimental or observational research, a case study, or a detailed technical/analytical report of interest to practitioners, researchers, or coaches, limited to 1500 words, 3 tables or figures, and 12 references. Case studies should describe a single case or a small case series of physiological and/or performance aspects of a highly trained athlete, team, event, or competition. A case study is appropriate when a phenomenon is interesting, novel, or unusual but logistically difficult to study with a sample. The case can exemplify identification, diagnosis, treatment, measurement, or analysis.
Limited to 400 words and 6 references. Readers wishing to submit commentary or intellectual debate on published articles can do so in the Letters to the Editor section within 6 months of the appearance of the original article. Letters must declare any conflicts of interest. Authors of the original article will be given the opportunity to respond in the same issue of the journal as the letter. When submitting your letter, please use the title “Comment on [Author/Author et al]” or “Response to [Author/Author et al],” adding a subtitle if you wish. Published correspondence might be edited for length and style with approval of editorial changes by the author.
The following features are by invitation only from the editor:
A concise and insightful review of literature, limited to 4500 words and 50–100 references. The abstract should at least include the following headings: Purpose, Conclusions. The Brief Review should contain separate Practical Applications and Conclusions sections.
Examining a topic relevant to the research and/or practical aspects of sport physiology and sport performance, limited to 2000 words. The abstract should at least include the following headings: Purpose, Conclusions. The Invited Commentary should contain a separate Practical Applications and Conclusions section.
The title page should contain the following information:
Original Research articles and Brief Reports should include the following elements, in order: Abstract, Introduction, Methods, Results, Discussion, Practical Applications, Conclusions, Acknowledgments (where needed), References, and figure captions, and tables (if any).
Abstract. Abstracts must be limited to 250 words or fewer and accurately reflect the content of the manuscript. For reports of original data, include the following headings: Purpose, Methods, Results, and Conclusions. The abstract should provide the context or background for the study and the appropriate details under the specified headings. The results should state the magnitude of effects, precision of estimation, and/or statistical significance. The conclusions should emphasize the practical application of the main findings and not simply restate the results. A list of 5 keywords or phrases, not repeating wording used in the title, should follow the abstract to assist in indexing and cross-referencing of the article.
Introduction. The Introduction should provide a succinct statement of the context or background of the study. The justification, practical importance of the study, and specific purpose or research objective should be clearly stated. Secondary objectives can also be presented. The purpose stated as a research question or objective is preferable to an explicit hypothesis. Only pertinent references should be cited, and data or conclusions from the work being reported should not be presented here.
Methods. The Methods section should be limited to material available at the time of the study design, whereas information obtained during the study should appear in the Results section. The Methods section should include a description of the design, subject information (including a statement that institutional review board approval was granted, in the spirit of the Helsinki Declaration), interventions, outcome measures, and statistical analyses.
Results. The results should be presented in a logical sequence, giving the most important findings first and addressing the stated objectives. Do not duplicate results between the text and the figures or tables. Use graphs to summarize large amounts of information, and avoid creating large tables of numeric data. Avoid inappropriate use of statistical terms such as random, significant, normal, sample, and population.
Discussion. Authors should emphasize new and important findings of the study and the practical applications and conclusions that follow from them. Material from the Results section should not be repeated, nor new material introduced. The relevance of the findings in the context of existing literature or contemporary practice should be addressed.
Practical Applications. The Practical Applications section is an important feature of manuscripts published in IJSPP. Authors should summarize how the findings could be useful for coaches and athletes and/or other researchers in sport physiology and sport performance. The study’s limitations and generalizability should also be addressed and, where necessary, recommendations made for future research.
Conclusions. Only include conclusions supported by the study findings.
Acknowledgments. List individuals making a limited contribution to the study, with their institutional affiliations and a brief statement of their involvement. These might include individuals who provided technical assistance, expert opinion, access to facilities and equipment, manuscript review, and/or coaches and athletes (subjects) involved in the study. Acknowledge any financial and material support, providing specific details of research grants if appropriate. All individuals cited in the acknowledgments should be advised of their inclusion before submission, because their appearance in this section can be inferred as endorsement of study findings and applications.
References. Designate each citation in the text by a superscripted numeral, and provide full and accurate information in the reference list. Limit references to published works or papers that have been accepted for publication; usually this can be achieved with fewer than 30 references, although review papers might have more extensive reference lists. Order the reference list in the order the works are first cited, numbered serially, with no repeated entries in the list. Entries in the reference list should follow the latest edition of the AMA Manual of Style. Examples of the main types of publications follow:
Figures and Tables. Provide each figure and table with a brief caption or title that defines all abbreviations used within it. Figures and tables must be numbered and called out in the text in consecutive numerical order. Figures should be in JPG or TIF format and no larger than approximately 19.5 cm (7.5 in.) by 23.5 cm (9.5 in.), which is the size of the print area on a single journal page, with all labels then legible at that size. Figures should be professional in appearance and have clean, crisp lines. Hand drawing and hand lettering are not acceptable. Although our online articles support color figures, bear in mind that the journal prints in black and white, and most color PDFs will be printed in black and white. Make sure that any color figures submitted will be interpretable in grayscale/black and white. Photographic images should be at a resolution of 300 dots per inch (dpi) for full-size photos and 600 dpi for line art. Figure captions must be listed separately, on a page by themselves; however, each figure must be clearly identified (numbered), preferably as part of its filename. Authors are urged to submit illustrations rather than tables. When tabular material is necessary, it should not duplicate the text. Tables must be prepared using Microsoft Word’s table-building functions. Tables should be single-spaced, include brief titles, and be uploaded as separate files. Explanatory notes should be shown in footnotes below the table. Authors wishing to reproduce previously published material should obtain prior written permission to reprint from the copyright holder(s) of the figure or table. The phrase "used by permission" should appear in the caption of the figure or table.
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